Shakespearean insulter. Why are there so many of these out there???

http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/

Question:

When does "well-meaning caring for the planet" become "nature-worship?"
This morning I listened to Mrs. F tell the class, "OK, so at the writing lab you're going to write a letter to the Earth, thanking her for what she gives us, and at the literacy lab you're going to highlight and glue this poem, "Make Today A Great Earth Day" in your poetry journals..."
One of the little girls informed me that the earth is female..."A girl Earth..." and that worked for the teachers because "Oh, Mother Nature, that makes sense..."

Let's hear from the NY Times again.

Dengue fever, a growing scourge in the tropics, has established itself in a popular American tourist destination, federal health officials reported last week.

Last August, an alert doctor in upstate New York realized that one of his patients, whose only recent travel had been to Key West, Fla., had dengue — a mosquito-borne virus that causes joint pain so severe it is nicknamed “break-bone fever” in Latin America and Asia. According to last week’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida health authorities have since found 27 more cases, all in Key West, the last in April. Most victims had a fever and pain in the head, body and eyes, and some had a rash.

*****

Although there have been outbreaks along the Texas-Mexico border since 1980, the disease had not been seen in Florida since 1934.

No mention of the restrictions on DDTs that prevented any prevention of this...

This song is just so...accurate

Drummers Call

Sorry that I've been off the radar, but my family and I were gone for five days to Drummers Call in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia with my fife and drum corps. It was a great trip. We stayed at a motel near the village, and had events all day last Saturday. I just want to share some fun moments:

• We got to see the Old Guard perform. They are the best of the best.
• There was a torchlight parade, and it was awesome!
• We had a pool party and it was hilarious to see two of our junior fifers, one sitting on the shoulders of our drum major, another on those of a snare drummer, trying to down each other.
• We realized that one of our bass drummers watches Monty Python... ("No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!")
• We visited the old Virginia Capitol building, which was cool...
• There was a Canadian corps, and their bass drummer and tambourinists (we couldn't believe that a corps used tambourines!) wore tremendously poofy shiny red pants!

Overall it was a great trip, and the corps formed more group cohesion and performed at an elite event, and it was awesome.

Pictures and words and music

Playing with concepts

This morning on the college shuttle, we were talking about random things like Spongebob Squarepants (blame the shuttle driver), random sayings and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." I love playing with concepts, because the weird part of my brain thrives on them. For instance, this morning they were saying, "Well, some people can control themselves and resist it, but most people can't."
Pretty much without thinking I said, "Well, I would say that if anyone can completely control themselves like that they already have too much power." Then I stopped and thought, Wait. What the HECK does that mean? And where did that come from?
The guy next to me nodded and agreed, "That's right. If you can control yourself you can control other people."
The shuttle driver said, "Wait, since when is self-control a bad thing?"
I said, "Well, it's the level of self-control." It was all nonsense, but we kept the nonsense going because it was fun. It can be entertaining to play with nonsense and concepts, because now and then a real grain of intelligence crops up. Sometimes it works. In any case, it's usually very entertaining.

I am OFFICIALLY

done with my second semester of college!

"Racism" in Arizona...

Disaster strikes in Arizona. People have been complaining left and right about how the law to keep out illegal immigrants is racist and targets Hispanics. This is absolute nonsense. The law isn't about Hispanics, it's about illegal immigrants. Let's take a look at the leftist logic here, shall we?

1. The vast majority of illegal immigrants are Mexican.
2. Police are going after illegal immigrants.
3. Therefore, the police are targeting all Mexicans/Hispanic-looking people.
   

Right. Sure.

Nowhere does the law give cops the right to arrest people just because of their skin color! But if the police have good evidence that someone is an illegal immigrant, they absolutely have the right to arrest that person! This isn't racism, this is defense of the law and of the citizens of Arizona.
Let's define "racism" too. Here's the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition:

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

I don't understand how this is in the law. (Or, by extension, disagreeing with President Obama's policies.)

Meet Big Brother

This is simply insane, and a lack of judgment on a monumental level.

So close, so close!

Last day of classes. I was in the English Comp classroom waiting for the professor to show up, and Becky, one of the girls who was in both English Comp and Public Speaking with me (and who had heard from the student who did me in her introductory speech at the semester's beginning that I was in high school) asked me in plain hearing of the class, "So Elisabeth, when do you do normal high school classes? I mean, you were here for Public Speaking, do you spend the day?"

Everyone in the class turned and stared.
Last class, and the cat was let out of the bag.

After class, I went up to my professor and thanked him for making the semester so interesting.
"Interesting. Well, it certainly was that. I'll tell you, Elisabeth, that I have seldom had a student with whom I agreed less. However, turn and look out the window - there - would you say that it's sunny out?" I nodded. "You see, we can agree on something. Although I for one don't like sunny days, so we may disagree on that. You've been a good student, if you need a recommendation don't hesitate to ask me. Oh and by the way, I actually don't think you're on crack."
I'm gonna miss this guy, for some strange, inexplicable reason.

Stupidity all round, in my opinion.

1. The kid's an idiot, clearly. What kind of stupid idea was it to go run on the field?
2. The officer's an idiot, clearly. What kind of stupid idea was it to taser an overenthusiastic fan? That is overkill of the highest order.
   

Overall, it was not a good night for intelligence and reason.

Just one more thing...

All I have left in this semester by way of assignments is the Public Speaking final exam, which in the words of my professor, "Sixty true or false questions and one ten-point essay question on general topics. It should take you all less than an hour."

Done!

I got my A-grade quizzes for English Comp back yesterday. I now have a free pass - I don't need to take the final. Which means? I am officially finished with English Comp II, with straight As and extra credit. :) I am so going to miss it though. It was amusing rather than boring, and usually more amusing than annoying. And I think I owe my prof a "Thank you" for making this the most memorable class I've taken yet...

We were right, the educational system needs reform

This morning at kindergarten, I was shocked to hear a last-minute staff meeting called first thing in the morning, and that all the kids were herded into the gymnasium to sit down on the floor in class order. There were literally hundreds of kids sitting there with no personal space. There were two ways that I saw to cope with this situation.

1. They could have made talking against the rules, which would be unfair and difficult.
2. They could have allowed them to talk, which would eventually (meaning maybe five minutes down the road) led to chaos and disorder.

They went with option 2. Probably because they could never have enforced option 1. I couldn't help thinking, This is a disaster waiting to happen. Finally, half an hour after school was supposed to have started, the teachers arrived from the staff meeting to take the kids to the classrooms.
I asked Diana what the staff meeting was about. "It sure must have been important for that."
She told me that yesterday a kid left the school during school hours and his teacher didn't even notice for forty-five minutes. They didn't find the kid until after school.
I made a few friends last fall at a class called "How Should We Fix America's Educational System." Being at that class implied that one was under the opinion that America's educational system needed reform. Well, I have it clinched now. We were right.

Lexington Muster

Here's our performance last Saturday at our Lexington Muster: